


Amplifications

by Alex_Marie



Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: Alternate Ending, Amplifications, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Canon Related, Fluff, Hospitals, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, S4E24
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-18
Updated: 2020-05-19
Packaged: 2021-03-02 17:28:36
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,471
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24260614
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alex_Marie/pseuds/Alex_Marie
Summary: Guilt swept through him like a tidal wave. If he hadn’t let Reid go ahead of him then they would have been in there together. Like how it was supposed to be. He felt his world-shattering before him as he watched His Pretty Boy.His partnerHis best friendThe man that he was in love with, behind the glass. Alone.
Relationships: Derek Morgan/Spencer Reid
Comments: 17
Kudos: 101





	Amplifications

**Author's Note:**

> What's up guys!! This isn't my first fanfic but it is my first Criminal Minds fanfic. It has become one of my favorite shows and I am obsessed with this ship and this episode in general. If you have a problem with this ship then turn back now because it's about to get hella gay up in here. With that being said please enjoy.  
> ~Alex_Marie

They made their way up the driveway and walked towards the backyard, out of the corner of his eye Morgan saw Reid knick his hand on a rose bush and chuckled, shaking his head a little. 

They had just entered the backyard when Morgan heard his phone start ringing. He stopped walking and answered it, letting Reid walk ahead of him. 

“Yeah, Prentiss, what's up? Uh-huh. Yeah, we're here now.” A sprinkler going off made him turn around startled. The sound made it hard for him to hear the phone call. 

“Sorry. What?” He took a few steps forward. “The lab is clean? You're sure?” He furrowed his brows in confusion. “All right.” He snapped his phone shut and turned back towards Reid.

“They got nothin’....” He stopped short when he saw that Reid wasn’t there anymore. Panicking a little he called out. “Reid?” No response.

“Reid!” He called out louder, trying to get the genius's attention. “Reid?” He started forwards through the bushes to what looked like a shed. 

“Reid?” He called out again, picking up his pace.“Reid!” He made a dash to the open door. Just before he reached it Reid was there sliding the door closed quickly. 

“Morgan, get... get back! Get back!” Reid yelled out as he fumbled to lock the door. 

“ What are you doing?” Morgan demanded as he looked between Reid and the handle of the door he was holding and back. 

Morgan made a grab for the door handle as Reid yelled. “ Get out of here!” 

“What's wrong?” Morgan pleaded. A sick feeling of dread swirling in his chest.

“Believe me, get back.” Reid answered. He was still struggling to lock the door. 

“What's wrong?” Morgan asked again and just then Reid slid the lock into place. He watched as Reid took a shallow breath and tucked a strand of hair behind his ear. 

“Reid, open the door!”He begged because he knew, he knew what was wrong, he knew why Reid had closed the door. 

Reid looked up and their eyes met. “I'm sorry.” He whispered. Morgan took a step back in disbelief.

Reid looked away and Morgan followed, his eyes landed on the broken vial on the ground, a vial that was filled with white powder. 

_ Anthrax.  _

He felt his heart drop, like a stone in water. He looked up and saw the air vent on full blast. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing, it all felt like a bad fever dream but when his eyes met Reids he knew it was anything but a dream. The look in Reid's eyes told him as much. The pain and fear he saw in His Pretty Boys' eyes told him that this was very much real. 

Guilt swept through him like a tidal wave. If he hadn’t let Reid go ahead of him then they would have been in there together. Like how it was supposed to be. He felt his world-shattering before him as he watched His Pretty Boy. 

His partner

His best friend 

The man that he was in love with, behind the glass. Alone.

_____

Morgan watched as an ambulance and two FBI cars pulled up. He started forward and met Hotch halfway.

“Morgan, how's Reid?” Hotch questioned. The General following right behind him. 

“There's white powder in the room and the air was blasting.” He said angrily.

“Get a decon team suited up. Secure a gray zone outside that door. Clean him up and get him in the ambulance fast.” The General barked out to the men behind him. Morgan ignored him and turned his attention towards the Unit Chief.

“I should have been right there with him.” He said as they walked towards the shed. 

“Morgan, there's no time for second-guessing,” Hotch said sternly. “ What do we know?”

“Nichols is dead. Blunt force trauma to his head. Reid thinks he's been dead 2 or 3 days.” Morgan answered.

“Well, then he couldn't have been responsible for the attack.” The General chimed in and Morgan had to refrain from telling him to shut up. 

“Reid took Cipro today, so he's gotta be OK, right?” Morgan could hear the desperation in his own voice. 

“I don't know. It was precautionary.” Hotch said. 

“It's not helping patients at the hospital.” If Hotch wouldn’t have been there Morgan would have punched the General in the face after he said those words. 

“Yeah, but they didn't take it until after they were exposed. Reid took it before.” Morgan said urgently. He was getting angry and the General wasn’t helping if anything he was making things worse. Thankfully before the General could say anything else Hotch’s phone rang.

“Reid.”He answered, placing the phone on speaker. 

“Hotch, I really messed up this time.” Reid said mournfully. 

“Reid, we need to get you out and to the hospital.” Hotch replied.

“No. I'm staying right here.” Reid answered.

“No, you're not, Reid.” Morgan argued. Why the hell did Reid have to be so damn stubborn? 

“I'm already exposed. It's not gonna do me any good to stop working the case.” Reid replied, walking away from the window. He couldn’t stand to see Morgan, he knew he would crack if he stayed. Morgan looked like he was ready to barge in here and drag Reid out himself. He shook his head at the thought, Morgan wouldn’t do that, no matter how much Reid secretly wished he would. He had long ago accepted the fact that he was in love with his best friend but that didn’t make things any easier. He knew that Morgan would never return his feelings, Morgan was a ladies man and always would be. He knew that Morgan loved him but it wasn’t the same way that Reid loved Morgan.

“He's already infected. Now, if Nichols created the strain, he may have also created the cure. My best chance is to stay here, see if there's a cure, try to figure out who killed Dr. Nichols.” He heard the General over the phone. He grabbed a clipboard from the table and started leafing through it, reading, trying to find some answers. 

“Come on, Hotch, say something to him.” Morgan said desperately. He couldn’t stand the thought of letting Reid stay in there. He watched as Hotch contemplated their options. 

“He's right. His best chance is inside.” Hotch said, shoulders stiff. Morgan signed angrily.

“We're gonna get a suit and mask on you right away.” Hotch insisted.

“Don't bother. It's not gonna do me any good. I'm already infected.” Reid said defiantly before he hung up. 

_____

“Hey, Reid,” Garcia answered quietly.

“Gee, wow, no, uh… No witty Garcia greeting for me?” Reid questioned, swallowing compulsively. 

“I can't be my sparkly self when you are where you are.” Garcia replied sadly.

“Garcia, do you think you can do something for me?” He asked hesitantly.

“Anything.” She said immediately. 

“I, uh… I know I can't call my mom without, uh… without alerting everyone at her hospital.” He stuttered out. He clenched his eyes shut momentarily, willing himself to calm down. 

“What do you need?” She questioned softly. She struggled to hold her tears in. 

“I, uh… I need you to record a message for her in case anything happens to me.” Her heart clenched painfully at the tone in Reid's voice. Her boy wonder was hurting and there was nothing she could do to help him. 

“Oh, nothing's going to happen to you. You're gonna... brilliantly find out who did this, and we're gonna treat this strain.” She said a little too eagerly. She was trying to be optimistic for him. She couldn’t let him hear the worry in her voice. 

“I hope you're right, but if you're not, I just...I really want to make sure that she hears my voice.” He tried not to sound too worried himself. 

“Okay. Just, uh, give me a second. Are you ready?” She responded softly. 

“Ready.” He hesitated for a moment and started. “ Hi, mom. This is Spencer. I just, um…” He sighed. “ I just... really want you to know that I love you and…” His voice quivered, clearing his throat he continued. “ I need you to know that..” His voice broke. Squeezing the phone tightly in his hand he took a breath. “ I spend every day of my life proud to be your son....” 

Garcia heard Reid's voice taper off and she had to stop herself from sobbing. She had never heard Reid so helpless and scared in her life. She listened for a few seconds waiting for him to continue and when he didn’t she whispered his name. “Reid?”

She heard muffled noises on the other side and a quick “I gotta go.” from Reid and the call was disconnected. She looked around her lair helplessly as her mind replayed Reid's message over and over again. 

_____

  
  


“Dr. Reid.” Reid turned and saw Dr. Kimura walked towards him in a large orange hazmat suit. 

“You look nice.” He said humorlessly. 

“I haven't been in this outfit for a while.” She responded with a small chuckle.

“How are... how are the patients doing?” He questioned, forgetting momentarily that he himself was now a patient. 

“Let's worry about you.” She said seriously.

“I actually... I feel fine.” He said immediately.

“Okay, if you feel any pain, I could give you something.” His stomach clenched and his arm started to itch at the thought of taking something. 

“No, I... I'd rather not take any pain medication.” He said a little too forcefully. He cleared his throat painfully, trying to calm down.

“We can at least make you feel more comfortable.” She said insistingly.

“I am comfortable, and I don't want to take any narcotics.” He said vehemently. A look of shock ran across her face and she nodded.

“Okay.” She said. She hesitated for a moment. “Tell me how I can help.”

“I think the cure for this strain is here somewhere.” He said gratefully. He really didn’t want to explain his reasoning for declining pain medication. 

“Well, shall I start here?” She asked, walking over towards the shelves. He nodded and turned around to continue his own search. 

_____

Hearing his phone ring Reid coughed in an attempt to clear his throat. “Hello.” His voice cracked. 

“How's it going in there, kid?”Morgan questioned. Reid relaxed a little at the sound of his voice. He had so many things he wanted to say to him but he knew it wouldn’t be fair to bring them up now. 

“I've seen better days.” He answered instead. 

“Well, you got me and Garcia,” Morgan responded. Reid felt better knowing that it wasn’t just him and Morgan on this call, the temptation to spill everything he was feeling to the older agent was too much. 

“Hey, Reid,” Garcia spoke sadly. He was about to greet her back when he took a breath in and it got caught in his throat, choking him for a second. He tried to clear it but instead got these deep ugly sounding coughs. The kind that hurt his lungs and made his eyes water. He reached out and grabbed the counter in an attempt to steady himself as the fit subsided and he gasped for air. 

“Reid, stick with me,” Morgan said desperately. His heart constricted painfully as he heard His Pretty Boy struggling. “Listen, Prentiss and Rossi don't think the partner was a coworker. Can you tell us anything else about him?” He was urgent, he needed Reid out of there yesterday, they had no time to waste.

“I tol... I've already been through everything.” Reid struggled for a moment with the simple sentence and it sent a spark of terror through him. 

“Come on, now, kid, I know you're not thinking straight, but the Reid I know wouldn't stop looking.” He shook his head and tried to focus, he couldn’t panic right now, he had a job to do. There was still a chance for him and the others, he just had to work quicker. 

“All right, all right.” He said whilst running back to the desk with the documents and notebooks, skimming through them and giving Garcia a list of things to cross-reference. Narrowing down their list of suspects and they found Chad Brown. 

“Kid, you did real good. Now get the hell out of there.”Morgan demanded. Urging His Pretty Boy to get to safety.

“Bye.” Reid said quickly, hanging up. He turned and saw Dr. Kimura approaches him with something in her hands. 

“Dr. Reid. You said the cure would be hidden somewhere we wouldn't suspect. What about Nichols' inhaler?” He raised his eyebrow and agreed with her, not having any other option. 

_____

Morgan stood outside the clear plastic tent on the phone and watched as they hosed Reid down thoroughly“Yeah, they're hosing him down now.” He listened to the response from Hotch. “All right.” He hung up and walked closer to the tent.

“They're checking out Brown's house.” He yelled over the spray of the water hose. The Genius looked up at him, his hair sticking to his face. He thought that if the situation wasn’t so dire he may have made a joke but now wasn’t the time for it. 

“Go help Hotch,” Reid yelled back. The last thing he wanted was for Morgan to leave but he knew that he could be more useful to Hotch then himself. 

“Hotch has plenty of people helping him.” Morgan replied. He didn’t want to leave His Pretty Boy, not when there was still a chance for things to go wrong. He didn’t want to miss what could possibly be his last moments. 

“He needs you more than I do.” Reid argued. He felt his body start to struggle more than what he was letting on and he didn’t want Derek to see it. He could feel his arm twitching and he was having a hard time thinking a coherent thought. 

“Reid, I'm gonna see you off to the hospital.” Derek said, irritated. He could tell that Spencer was trying to put on a brave face and to anyone else it would have worked but Derek knew how to see right through it. He couldn’t fool him. 

“I'm about to get naked so they can scrub me down. Is that something you really want to see?” Spencer exclaimed dramatically, urging him silently to leave. He saw the look on Derek's face and knew that it had worked. 

“I'll check on you later. Take good care of him, please.” Derek regretfully made his way away from the tent and to his car, getting in he made his way back to the BAU.

_____

“Get this to the lab.” She handed off the inhaler to one of her colleagues. She turned towards Reid. “I hope you're right about this.” She said seriously. 

“So do I.” Reid replied just as seriously. If this didn’t work then he was for sure a goner, that much was obvious. They wouldn’t have time to find the antidote if there even was one. He slid his tie off and started to unbutton his shirt when Dr.Kimura’s voice stopped him.

“Dr. Reid, did you cut yourself?” She said urgently. He looked down and saw a deep brown spore about the size of a dime on his hand. Swallowing harshly he looked up panicked.

_____

They were in the ambulance on the way to the hospital. He was in a pair of grey scrubs and lying on the gurney. He was trying desperately to form coherent thoughts but the more he tried the more his head felt like cotton. 

“How are you feeling, Dr. Reid?” Dr.Kimura asked. She was listening to his lungs as he struggled to breathe. 

“My throat's a little dry. But other than that, I feel…” He struggled for a moment. “Flee… feel fin.” He grunted in frustration. “I feel... I fleel fin. I…”

“Dr. Reid, Okay. Driver, faster.”She said urgently.

_____

Garcia watched in horror as the anthrax simulation kept replaying. She looked up as Derek walked in, heart sinking she walked over to him and broke the news she had received a few minutes ago. 

“Derek... Dr. Kimura called. Reid's in trouble.”She tried to keep her voice steady. Derek looked like the air was knocked out of him.

“What do you mean?” Derek asked. He was trying to stay calm but he felt bile rising in his throat, he struggled to swallow it down. 

“He got way sicker on the way to the hospital. He went into respiratory distress.” Garcia looked like she was about to break down then and there but then Hotch walked in.

“Listen, he's with the people who can help him the most. I need everybody's head here right now.” His tone was stern and final but he himself looked scared for their youngest agent. With grim faces, they made their way to the subway station to catch Chad Brown. 

_____

Derek was sitting in one of the most uncomfortable chairs in his life. They had made it to the subway station in time and had managed to trick Brown into believing that they were going to reward him for the work he had done. When he was in custody and the bag of anthrax was secured, Hotch had given him the go-ahead to head to the hospital. 

When he had entered Spencer's room he had to grab the railing on his bed to stop himself from collapsing to the floor in relief. He had been so scared, his mind kept replaying Garcia’s words about him going into respiratory distress and the look Spencer had given him when he had shut the door between them, the look of hopelessness on his face. 

He shook the thoughts away and pulled the chair close to the bed, he looked at His Pretty Boy and sighed, he was in a hospital gown, blankets pulled up around his waist. His head was resting against a couple of pillows and there was a nasal canal looped around his ears, aiding him in the act of breathing, his hands laying delicately in his lap. 

He tried to resist the urge to reach out and take Spencer's hand in his own, but it didn’t last long. Giving up he reached out and gently took his pale hand and enclosed it in both of his, the contrast between their skins making him smile slightly. He laced one of his hands with Spencers and wrapped his other hand around his wrist, he pressed his thumb in the middle of his wrist and sighed as he felt the steady thumping against it. He stayed there for roughly a half an hour and then a doctor came in to check his vitals and he had been forced to let go. 

Looking at the bedside table he saw a few magazines and grabbed one, laying it in front of himself to mindlessly flick through it, he did that for another half an hour before another nurse came in and brought a food tray, leaving it on the table. He grabbed the Jell-O cup he opened and started eating as he continued to leaf through the book. 

_____

Spencer felt as if someone had dropped a bowling ball on his chest, it ached with every breath he took. He tried to recall the reason for the pain he was feeling and remembered what had happened. Considering he heard the steady strum of his heart monitor and he could actually think straight he realized that the inhaler had indeed been the antidote. 

With that thought in mind he felt himself relax further into the bed he was laying in, the relief he felt was staggering, he hadn’t let himself get his hopes up because he knew that there was a chance that they had been wrong. He felt as if he could go right back to sleep and he would have if he didn’t hear the sound of paper crinkling. Furrowing his eyebrows slightly he blinked his eyes open. There at the edge of his bed was Derek, he was reading a magazine and eating Jell-O.

“Are you eating Jell-O?” He questioned, stupidly. Mentally he face-palmed. Derek looked up quickly and smiled.

“Hmm. Hey, kid.” He turned his head towards the open door where the doctor was standing, talking with colleagues. “Hey, Doc. Look who's back.” Dr.Kimura looked up and smiled, muttering a goodbye as she walked into the room. 

“Is there any more Jell-O?” Spencer asked somewhat eagerly. 

“Hey. Not so fast.” Dr.Kimura replied. She was happy to see that Spencer was responding well to the treatment. Their scare in the ambulance had worried her.

“What happened?” He questioned. He knew that they had gotten the cure but he didn’t know about anything else that had gone down. Derek leaned over and squeezed his wrist reassuringly. 

“You're gonna be alright, kid. And we got Brown. It's over.” Derek said happily. Spencer looked and saw that he was still wearing a smile. Feeling warm inside he looked over to Dr.Kimura. 

“How's Abby?” He asked hesitantly. He was worried that they had been too late with finding the cure. The doctor smiled and he felt his shoulders relax.

“She's on the mend, so are the three others. Thanks to you. You were right about where to look for his cure.” She put a hand on his shoulder and squeezed. Thanking both the agents she left the room, leaving Derek and Spencer alone. 

They sat there for a few minutes in silence and Spencer took the chance to close his eyes again, he had a feeling that Derek would want to talk to him about the stunt he pulled about shutting the door but he couldn’t deal with it right now. All the fear and pain that had plagued him all day was finally wearing him down. Back in the shed, he couldn’t afford to lose it but now everyone was safe and they had caught their unsub, the case was over and so was Spencer's pretense of things being okay. 

In their line of work, there was always a possibility of something going wrong, he knew that it had been seared into his brain during the Hankel case. Back then he had been ready to die because he didn’t think he had anything to live for but after he had been found and rescued by his team, he had realized that he had been wrong. He had people who cared for and loved him, they were his family. After they had come back he had made a vow to himself to work on being more open with his feelings, he constantly tried to make sure that his family knew that he cared and loved them as well. 

He had grown closer to everybody on the team considerably, he had been able to open up more and it had felt good. He hardly ever felt alone anymore, even when he was alone at home, he knew that he could call any one of them and they would be there for him in a heartbeat and the feelings were returned. He also had a Godson he was supposed to be there for and he knew that he never wanted to do anything that would ever hurt Henry, so when he had walked into the shed and realized the danger he was in, it had terrified him. He realized quickly that he had too much to live for and he was so close to losing all of it. Not only did he have his Godson and his team but he also had Derek, sure not the way he would like but they were still best friends. He had never had a best friend before so the day that Derek had called him as such it had struck a deep chord within himself, he had been so happy that he had smiled the rest of the day without even trying to. Those feelings of joy and happiness were the only things that had kept him calm inside the shed, he knew that if he had succeeded in figuring out where the cure was then he would be fine.

Without meaning to, he had clutched the sheets around his waist with his hands, the grip was tight and it made his knuckles hurt. The room had been so quiet that he forgot that he wasn’t alone, so when hands wrapped around his own, loosening his grip on the sheets he had flinched. His eyes snapped open to see Derek, leaning over him, concern evident on his face. He realized then that his hands were shaking, his heart monitor was beeping frantically and there were tears in his eyes. He took a shuddering breath and swallowed hard around the lump in his throat. 

“You okay Pretty Boy?” Derek asked softly as he laced their fingers together, gently giving them a squeeze. Spencer dropped his chin to his chest and squeezed his eyes shut, he could feel the tears running down his face. The hands that were holding him dropped and before he could mourn the loss he felt them slip behind his back and wrap around his body, pulling him forward and against a warm chest. He stiffened for a moment before he felt the damn inside of himself break and he sagged into Derek, for once letting someone else shoulder his pain.

_____

The last thing Derek had been expecting when he looked up from his magazine was to see His Pretty Boy sitting there, hands shaking, shoulders stiff and tears in the corner of his eyes. He reached out without thinking and linked their hands together, sitting on the edge of his bed. He watched as Spencer's eyes snapped open and met his own, the amount of pain he saw there staggered him for a moment, and then Spencer had ducked his head. Sighing to himself he released the hold on his hands and instead wrapped them around his body, pulling him gently into his chest. He was met with resistance at first but then he felt Spencer give in and settle into his arms. 

Derek doesn’t know exactly how they sat there, both clinging to the other before he felt the arms around him loosen slightly, the body against him becoming heavier. Looking down he realized that His Pretty Boy had fallen asleep, smiling to himself he gently laid Spencer back into the pillows and settled back into the plastic chair. He took one of Spencer's hands in his own and relaxed into the chair. He decided then and there that he was going to tell Spencer exactly how he felt about him and how scared he had been when he realized that he may have never gotten that chance.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you guys enjoyed that, this fic is probably gonna be about three chapters long, nothing too extensive lol.  
> Let me know what you guys thought of that, whether it be good or bad, I love reading comments and I respond to every one of them.  
> Until next time  
> ~Alex_Marie


End file.
